Soccer History Made In The MLS With Video Assistant Referees

Last Friday the sport of football was changed forever as the MLS became the first league to ever use video reviews in a live match.

This comes after the controversial meeting last June where The International Football Association Board (The IFAB), supported by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, gave the green light to test the impact of video replays in football. Under the strict oversight of The IFAB, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is scheduled to be tested in four MLS matches, the first of which was during this past Friday’s United Soccer League (USL) match between the New York Red Bull II and the Orlando City B.

As David Elleray, Technical Director of The IFAB, shared with me, “The time [has] come for the discussion/debate to be based on evidence. Everyone (whether they support or oppose video assistance for referees) agreed that we need to see if it works and whether or not it benefits the game. The initial testing will deliberately have a limited focus to minimize the impact of the flow and emotions which are crucial to football.”

The overarching purpose for the VAR system will be to prevent incidents like Maradonna’s infamous “Hand of God” goal in the Argentina vs. England quarterfinals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup, which they then went on to win. Or the clearly poor officiating that negated two goals to incorrect calls of offsides, leading to Spain’s exit from the 2002 FIFA World Cup. More recently, a “handball” goal from Peru eliminated the Brazilian favorites from the Copa America. Clearly, a problem exists.

With that in mind, The IFAB have outlined a strict protocol for testing that is fairly straightforward. The VAR will be a top-level referee (either currently or retired), who will have extensive training and be assisted by a technology expert. The VAR will monitor the match, checking for clear errors in one of four established reviewable incident categories: goals, penalty kicks, direct red cards, and mistaken identity.

In Friday’s match, it only took 35 minutes before the referee, Ismail Elfath, decided to request a review, changing the game forever. Elfath made the formal signal, outlining the shape of a TV monitor, and then proceeded to the Referee Review Area (RRA) on the sideline. From that moment to the subsequent issuing of a red card to the offending player, only 24 seconds passed.

The VAR system was not tested again until the 80th minute, where again, less than a minute after the review process started, the referee was issuing an appropriate card to the guilty player for a foul that he had not initially called.

After the match, the Red Bulls II head coach, John Wolyniec, seemed fairly pleased with the VAR system, whose two calls were in his team’s favor.

Over the next several months, an independent university will be collecting feedback from players, coaches, match officials, and spectators to analyze reactions. A market research company may even be brought in to help sort through all the data. In the end, they are all hoping to be able to answer one of three questions that will determine the VAR system’s success: What is the impact of review stoppages on the flow and emotion of the game? What is the accuracy of the reviewed decisions? How many stoppages are used during a game and what is the duration of each review?

But the VAR system is not meant to review the hundreds of decisions that are made throughout the course of a match. Nor is it meant to replace the referee. It was created to be an aid to the game, in much the same way as goal-line technology has helped to ensure that all goals are proper goals, with the entirety of the ball crossing both the goal line and the goal posts. As Elleray stressed, “when an incident is reviewed, the question is not ‘Was the decision correct?’ The question is ‘Was the decision CLEARLY wrong?’” And the final decision still remains, as always, with the referee.

Even now, just days after the final whistle, the data is pouring in. And the initial data may also be the most compelling. The VAR system is more complicated than just watching TV. The VAR is in no way a glorified spectator. He or she will be at the mercy of the number of camera angles available, and the quality of the camera feeds. (Unfortunately, it seems that a Virtual Reality Assistant Referee is still a long way off.)

In addition, an incredible amount of training will be needed for both the VAR and the referee to navigate through theoretical and practical situations, in addition to the murky grey areas, such as, how far back can a play be considered contributing to a goal?

As it stands now, only live competitions that conform to using The IFAB’s protocol and have The IFAB’s validation and permission will be able to use the VAR system. And only then with referees that have had the intense and vigorous training. This is a joint venture between FIFA, The IFAB, and the volunteering leagues that demands the cooperation of all involved. Without that, the resulting data will be nothing more than an exercise in “lessons learned.”

Four more MLS games are scheduled to test the VAR system in the coming weeks. How those referees handle the weight of change will be, undoubtedly, analyzed thoroughly. Several other professional leagues, including England’s, have expressed interest in participating in the future, although it will most likely be offline testing that will not impact any live matches. For now, the USL is taking a page from Alexis de Tocqueville as the “grand experiment.” (America may be taking it’s title a little too literally).

With the changing of the guard within football’s overseeing committees, the door to the incorporation of new technologies has been blasted open. This may be only the beginning. Jet-powered cleats and sticky goalie jerseys may be next. But for now, the future of the VAR system is far from certain. The IFAB is only in the preliminary stages of testing with several matches to go, but already they know it will be a long road to any concrete findings. It’s possible that they are reaching for a “Hand of God” of their own, but only time will tell.